Busy Week!

So this week has been getting better. A family in the ward had 3 referrals to give us so we will see them sometime this week. Our goal this week is to find 2 new investigators and will be doing more street contacting/ working with members. By the way, thank you for the pictures. I enjoyed them.....ask James if he knows how to smile....and if he gives you a smart alick response, tell him to "kick rocks" ha-ha.

Things I did this week:

 

On Wednesday, 20 new missionaries entered into the mission office and I did a thing called "open your mouth". This is where you bring the new missionaries out and start talking to people and giving out book of Mormon to them. I had Elder "L" with me ( at that time I didn't know he was going to be my trainee). It was a lot of fun.....I remembered when I came in and how I was nervous to go out and talk to people ha-ha. For the rest of the afternoon I was with Elder "J" and we worked in the YSA ward till Thursday morning when we got our trainee's.

 

On Thursday all the trainers came in and Elder "G" was there ! It was really good to see him and we talked a lot about what's happening in each other's area's.( Elder "G" was with me in the MTC). All the trainers were in a room for about 1 hour waiting to get the trainees. While we were waiting, a senior missionary named Elder "M"(he's from Pennsylvania) came in and bore his testimony because him and his wife are done with their mission. They are heading back home in a week or so. He talked about how he was Catholic before he joined the church when he was 30 and what a big change he had to make in his life. He told us the importance of our work as missionaries and to never give up.  The spirit was so strong when he spoke and the room was completely quiet. I got a picture with him and his wife but I forgot to bring my camera ...sorry.

 

Elder "L" is from......Ephraim ,Utah .  He is a really nice elder and is willing to work. It's weird to be a trainer because you do a lot of talking at 1st and I didn't realize how many things I need to teach him. ha-ha.  One of the things about being a trainer is all the meetings you have to go to. Next week there is a trainer/trainee meeting and the week after that I have to go to a 2 day leadership training which probably last from 8am to 5pm. You gotta love those meetings.

 

That was pretty much my week.

I hope all is going well in New York. I will talk you to all later and tell mom and grandma I love them.

Love,

Elder DeMarco

I'm a Trainer Now!

Hey dad and everyone! I need to start off by saying that's so cool that Tyler had a lot of people at her baptism. I bet she will remember that forever. That's cool that Josh helped at the pumpkin patch. Also I can't believe that Brother Madsen is the 2nd counselor! That's so awesome. He is going to do a great job. I'm glad that grandma is feeling better, did she enjoy her birthday this year?

Missionary work time....so me and my companion Elder Braithwaite are doing fine we get along great. He is a really good teacher and he is fun to be around. We only have 2 investigators but we found 2 potentials later on in the week. While I was on exchanges with Elder Scott, President Gelwix called me around 7:40 in the morning and asked me to be a trainer. I accepted. I am really excited to be one but I'm also pretty nervous too. I hope I will be a good trainer to him. President Gelwix said being a trainer is one of the most important jobs to do on a mission because you either make or break the missionaries experience. I will be staying with my trainee for at least 2 transfers which will be till December 12th. I will get him this Thursday and I will continue to be in the Clovis area.

My companion Elder "B", is going to another ward tomorrow with his new companion Elder "C". I'm definitely going to miss him a lot and wow this transfer has gone by sooooo fast. That was pretty much my week. Make sure you tell the Gagne's that I have received Elder Gagne's letter. Oh yeah me and Elder "B" had a car for 4 day so that was greattttttt! But now it's back to biking.... I hope to hear from you soon.
love,
Elder DeMarco

Learned lot of things at Zone Conf.

Hey Dad and Grandma and everyone else!

This week has been really good. The talk I gave on Sunday went well and the members enjoyed it. I talked on missionary work and not being afraid to talk to others about it. We are going to have dinner with the Bishop tonight and find out different ways we get can more investigators.

Yesterday we had a Zone Conference with my zone (The Fresno East Stake), Fresno North Stake, Fresno West Stake and Fresno Stake. Elder Golden of the 70 came and we did a question and answer meeting. We talked a lot about revelation and how we receive it.  This video talks about it in a simple way..I hope you like it. http://mormonchannel.org/mormonmessages?v=1737858986001

We also talked more about how to "liken the scriptures" to our investigators and members. It was neat to see how much it brings the spirit in when you use the stories from the bible and book of Mormon to relate to others. It helps them gain a stronger testimony and understand that they are not alone in their trials.

Transfer calls are coming up this Saturday but I'm probably going to stay in the Clovis 7th ward which is fine with me.

Make sure you take pictures of the baptism and of Uncle Bruce's wedding.  I forgot to bring my camera but I will send some pictures next time.

Talk to you all later,

Love,
Elder DeMarco

Mini Miracle

Hey dad! How are you doing today. You having fun at work? Let's see...not much happened this week but we kinda got a new investigator that is going to be baptized. Mini miracle: so a family in the ward called the "O's" wanted us to teach their friend "M" at their house. So we set up an appointment to go see them yesterday. "M" is 23 years old and is married with 2 kids. We went and taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation. She understand a lot of it and she wanted to learn more. The spirit was really strong throughout the lesson and she said she wanted to be baptized. There is only a slight problem...she lives outside our area soooo... the missionaries will finish teaching her. My Companion and I were a little sad to learn she didn't live in the area but it's all good as long as she gets baptized. Also the less active family we have been working with came to church last Sunday. It was great. They really enjoyed it and hopefully they will come back next Sunday. We are going to stop by their house this week to talk to them about their daughter so we get set a baptismal date with her. Also my companion and I, along my ward mission leader, are going to speak in sacrament meeting this Sunday about missionary work. So wish me luck. I'm going to be using D&C 112: 1-13. Well, that was my week in a nutshell and don't worry... I will make sure I help the members here, I am a man of my word. Love Elder DeMarco

The Lord's Vineyard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week I worked in the Lord's Vineyard. (Jacob 6:3). The church owns 80 acres of land with a bunch of grapes on it which they turn into raisins. Members go out during January for pruning, August for picking and September for rolling. So I helped out with the picking.  Basically you cut the grapes and put them on a big piece of paper so that they can dry in the sun and eventually become raisins. Fun facts....the church has been doing this for 50 years and California produces most of the worlds raisins. It was fun do be a part of it and I got to eat some really tasty grapes.

Also our mission known as the "Lord's Vineyard" because we really do work in the vineyard.
 
Yesterday we went to the Temple.  When I went to the desk my trainer Elder Fisi'ihoi came out of a room and I was so happy to see him.  It was really good to see him for a bit.  It was nice to understand so much more at the temple. I felt more of that peace and comfort when going to the temple and I need it after working in the sun all day haha.

 That was my week pretty much we are still trying to get more investigators to teach and will be meeting with a potential tomorrow so we shall see how that goes.

And I will send you a close up of me in the next email.
I got to go talk to you later.

 Elder DeMarco

Zone Activity and other stuff

Hey dad and everyone else. First of all tell grandma that I enjoyed her cookies she sent and so did the other missionaries in my zone haha. And thank you for the money.

Things that happened this week and other random stuff :

-on Friday I went to a festival called "farmers market" with our investigators. They are both in their  60s and they wanted us to come so we got permission to go. It was pretty fun.  There were a lot of different vendors selling fresh fruit, vegetables and food. Mostly everyone was selling organic stuff so I bought a couple peaches and plums. I saw the Leon family from my old ward there too and we said hi them. I got a couple of free goat soaps from some members so that's pretty cool.

-on Saturday we went out to dinner with Elder Scott and Elder Hartshorn, We went out to Applebee's. As we were about to pay for our food at the end, the waiter said someone has paid for your food so your free to go.....how awesome is that!! We were looking around trying to see if any members we knew were there but we couldn't find any.

(we are so lucky and thankful for those people who bought our food.)

-tell the Gagne's to tell Elder Gagne that a member brought us out to Red Robin for dinner, Elder Gagne loves Red Robin haha. I thought of him because I went there for a lot of his birthdays.

-we had a baptism planned for the end of the month but the girl didn't go to church so we are going to set the date back. Her parents are less active members and we are activating them while helping her be baptized.

- Yesterday we had a zone activity with my old zone. We played Fresno East vs Fresno North in dodge-ball and ultimate Frisbee. Today my arm hurts from throwing so much! haha But it's ok. We had a great district meeting too, we talked about following the promptings of the spirit and as long as it's a good thought it's the holy ghost speaking to you.

I will talk to you soon. love you all.

Love,

Elder DeMarco

August 14, 2012

Hey dad how's it going? I will start off by answering your questions....

-my first area was in the Fresno North Stake and I was in the city of Clovis and my new area is in the Fresno East Stake.  So I'm still in the city of Clovis just on the east side. It was funny when I told the members I was moving there because they were like "oh you are just 5 minutes away haha". My ward is called the "Clovis7th ward" and I technically live in my old area. I have to bike a mile to even reach the new area I'm in. I can't remember the address but I live in a apartment complex and its pretty small.  We want to try and live with some other elders because they have a big apartment with more room. My new area is 3 times the size of my old area and it's a wealthy area.

-my new companion is Elder Braithwait.  He's from Michigan but he grew up in Utah most of his life. I get along with him really well. His dad works for Ford and gets to have the new cars that come out with so he showed me the car he drove back home and it was a 2010 Ford Mustang....it was really nice. Anyways he's been out for a year and he's going to school in Utah.

-I'm still in a biking area, but if we need a ride the YSA Elders from the Academy ward (Elder Hartshorn who was with me in the MTC and Elder Scott who is from Australia) help us out.

-there are not as many members here but we hope to reactivate a good amount of them.

 Things that happened this week:

-On Sunday  my companion and I were biking around when this dog was coming at us and behind it was a woman. The woman yelled at us to get the dog.  I got off my bike and grabbed the dog by its collar. The woman said she was chasing her dog for a mile and couldn't catch it. She asked if we would watch it till she went home to grab her car...we said sure. Before she left to get her car she said "if you watch the dog for me for a second , it will help strengthen my belief in you Mormons".(i was laughing when she said that). Anyways.... while she was gone for 10 minutes we played with the dog and I gave it some of the water I was drinking. Finally she came back and started talking to us. She told us how she didn't like Mormons but now she likes them a little bit more. We talked with her about the church and she wanted to know why God lets bad things happen to people. We gave her a Book of Mormon and a specific chapter to read and told her to call us when she finished reading it. She accepted the invitation. We hope to meet with her soon to talk more with her. It's funny how heavenly father puts certain people in your path and you never know how it's going to be done.

-While biking to the church on Thursday a red car went past us and someone yelled out "DEMARCO!!!" . The car then pulled to the side and it was Connor Stokes one of the young men in my old ward (peachwood) . He said I will be seeing him later that night because his grandparents live in my new ward. So later that day we went to the Stokes house for dinner and I saw Brother and Sister Stokes of the Peachwood ward and I was really happy to see them. I didn't   know that they had family in my new area. So that was a pretty cool and I also met other members of my old ward later that day.  I guess they have a lot of friends in my new ward.

 That was pretty much it for the week.  We had a zone conference all day on Saturday and President Gelwix talked about the importance of being exactly obedient and how there's 3 types of obedience....the first one is FEAR, you do it because you are scared of the consequences .....the next is ROBOT, you do it because you are told too and lastly you are obedient by CHOICE because you love your heavenly father.  I never knew how important it was to have that type of attitude for the commandments we've been giving and we receive more blessings when we are obedient by Choice.

I got to go so tell Joey and everyone else I said HI....I will be emailing now every Tuesday because that's when the computer room in the church is open. Hope to hear from you soon.

Love,

Elder DeMarco